'The untimely abolition of the Community Development Employment Program'. This paper was prepared as a submission to the Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Family Assistance and Other Legislation Amendment (2008 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2008. It focuses on proposed changes to the Social Security Act 1991 that would facilitate changes to the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, and examines the serious potential consequences of abolishing CDEP as currently formulated in non-remote areas by July 2009 and remote areas by July 2011.

'Submission to "Increasing Indigenous Economic Opportunity – A discussion paper on the future of the CDEP and Indigenous Employment Programs"', noting the current policy attempt to redefine CDEP as a labour market program rather than as an expression of self determination - a community development program.
[28 November 2008]

This submission was prepared in response to the Northern Territory Government's Review of Community Development Employment Program discussion paper. The submission, focusing mainly on CAEPR research findings produced since 1990, provides evidence-based research findings that the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) scheme is an important and beneficial program for Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and individuals.

[20 May 2008]

This article examines the role of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and the consequences of its sudden abolition. (First published in Arena Magazine 90, August-September 2007).

Ministers Joe Hockey and Mal Broughs' decision to abolish the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme in remote Indigenous communities in the NT will have marked impacts on the arts industry, the management of Indigenous Protected Areas, and community-based Caring for Country ranger projects. And it's not just these success stories that will suffer; it's likely that there will be wider local, regional and national costs from this myopic, ill-considered, policy shift.

The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is an Indigenous 'workfare' program which has existed since 1977. In 2004, with the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), CDEP became a responsibility of the Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). Since early 2005, DEWR has been engaged in a reform process which has led to some significant changes to CDEP. This article looks at those changes under two headings; policy substance and the new contractualism. It begins with a little more history.

'CDEP 2005—A New Home and New Objectives for a Very Old Program?' by Jon Altman. CAEPR Seminar Series. Notes from a joint seminar with Matthew Gray, presented on 2 March 2005.

'The CDEP scheme: A flexible and innovative employment and community development program for Indigenous Australians', Refereed paper to the Transition and Risk: New Directions in Social Policy conference, (February 2005), hosted by the Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne.